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These Are the Top Baby Names of 2016

The Social Security Administration has released the top baby names for 2016. Emma and Noah topped the list.

(Published Friday, May 12, 2017)

Don't call me Caitlyn.

A year after Caitlyn Jenner announced her new name and gender, the popularity of the name Caitlyn plummeted more than any other baby name, according to Social Security's annual list of the most popular baby names.

In fact, the four names that dropped the most were all variations of the same name: Caitlin, Caitlyn, Katelynn and Kaitlynn.

"It was inevitable," said Laura Wattenberg, founder of BabynameWizard.com. "Caitlyn was already falling in popularity. Now it is suddenly controversial."

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Each year, the Social Security Administration releases the top 1,000 baby names and uses the announcement to drive traffic to their website, where workers can start tracking their benefits long before they retire.

Emma was the top baby name for girls for the third year in a row. It was followed by Olivia, Ava, Sophia and Isabella, the Social Security Administration announced Friday.

Noah was the top baby name for boys for the fourth year in a row. It was followed by Liam, William, Mason and James.

The agency also lists the baby names that increase — and decrease — the most in popularity.

All four versions of Caitlyn fell out of the top 1,000.

In 2015, the former Bruce Jenner, an Olympic gold medalist, shocked the world when she announced that she is now a transgender woman. The iconic cover of Vanity Fair magazine was emblazoned with the quote, "Call me Caitlyn," on top of a picture of a very feminine Jenner.

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The issue sparked much debate and an outpouring of support for Jenner in a country that is still evolving in its views of gay marriage and equal rights for the LGBT community.

Wattenberg said it would be wrong to blame Caitlyn's drop in popularity solely to a wave of homophobia. In general, she said, parents don't want to give their children names that might attract controversy.

"Even parents who are huge Donald Trump supporters are unlikely to name their child Donald," Wattenberg said. "In part, we just want to avoid controversy in picking names."

The Social Security Administration's website provides lists of the top 1,000 baby names for each year, dating to 1880. The top baby names that year were John and Mary. John is now No. 28 and Mary has fallen to No. 127.

Sometimes old is new: Emma was the third most popular name in 1880.

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The top 10 baby names for girls stayed the same in 2016, though the order shuffled a bit. For boys, Alexander dropped to No. 11 and Elijah cracked the top 10 for the first time ever, at No. 9.

Baby naming experts said parents have long used biblical names for their children. However, there has been a decided shift from the New Testament to the Old.